Review: Minnesota Orchestra’s Nordic Soundscapes Festival highlights Nordic composers

Is Nielsen the new Sibelius?

Over Osmo Vänskä’s 19 seasons as Minnesota Orchestra music director, the orchestra became internationally renowned for its interpretations of music by Vänskä's fellow Finn, Jean Sibelius.

Could Carl Nielsen be next? Born the same year as Sibelius (1865), he’s also something like his country’s national composer. That country is Denmark, which is also home for Thomas Søndergård, Vanska’s successor as Minnesota Orchestra music director. Now in his second season in the post, Søndergård hasn’t gone heavy on the Nielsen — until now.

This weekend marks the opening of a fortnight-long Nordic Soundscapes Festival in which both orchestral programs have as their centerpieces Nielsen concertos. On opening night, it was his Clarinet Concerto, which was brought to ebullient life Friday by the orchestra’s principal clarinetist, Gabriel Campos Zamora. Next week, one of classical music’s hottest young violinists, Johan Dalene, will solo on the composer’s Violin Concerto.

But don’t mistake this for a Nielsen Festival that gives the composer a monthlong spotlight akin to what Vänskä and the orchestra did one January with wall-to-wall Sibelius. No, Friday night’s performance showed Søndergård to be equally passionate about recent works from the edge of the Arctic. He and the orchestra gave eloquent voice to the musical visions of Iceland’s Daníel Bjarnason, Denmark’s Bent Sørensen and Finland’s Outi Tarkiainen, performing pieces premiered between 2012 and 2019.

It proved quite a satisfying concert, complemented well by the touches of Nordic design and Danish hygge found around Orchestra Hall. Concertgoers were invited to wrap themselves in blankets and sit beside fire pits on Peavey Plaza, sample some aquavit and enter the hall via walkways lined with luminaria. Orange dominated the lighting scheme, lending a welcome warmth to a chilly winter night.

A sense of comfort continued with the concert’s opening work, Swedish romantic Elfrida Andrée’s Concert Overture. It’s a pretty and pleasant piece reminiscent of Johannes Brahms in one of his jollier moods.

And it would be understandable if you took Nielsen for a similarly sweet-spirited soul based on the opening strains of his Clarinet Concerto. It has a playful feel akin to Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” and Zamora brought forth many a bouncy earworm, bridging the movements with complex cadenzas full of astoundingly fast phrases, each delivered with full-bodied tones and dramatic dexterity as he darted and danced with a single snare drum.

Among the three pieces from last decade, the most gripping was Bjarnason’s “Air to Breath,” the finale of his work for cello and orchestra, “Bow to String.” With the lights low and blue, it became a showcase for principal cellist Anthony Ross’ skills as a hypnotist. Full of fascinating textures throughout the orchestra, it whetted my appetite for more from this composer’s pen.

Violinist Erin Keefe was similarly spellbinding in the haunting opening and calming interludes within Sørensen’s “Evening Land,” while Tarkiainen’s “Midnight Sun Variations” created an icy atmosphere before a virtually volcanic eruption from the percussion section.

After a concert full of such unfamiliar music, it’s understandable that Søndergård chose for a finale Sibelius’ popular “Finlandia.” Like the lighting in the hall, his interpretation emphasized warmth and comfort, eschewing the chilling menace and in-your-face defiance of some versions.

What and when: Nordic Soundscapes Festival with clarinetist Gabriel Campos Zamora, 2 p.m. Sat.; chamber music, 2 p.m. Sun.; and with violinist Johan Dalene, 11 a.m. Thu., 8 p.m. Fri. and 7 p.m. Jan. 18

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $20-$121, 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.